With the festive season arriving today and offers available on consumer durable items like ACs, TVs, smartphones, etc., various financial institutions also cater to consumers by offering various loan schemes that makes it easy for customers to buy expensive products.
The loan extends to those products that mostly have a warranty period and such loans can be used to purchase products ranging from Laptops, Computers, ACs, LED TVs, Smartphones, Kitchen Appliances and even furniture.
Getting a consumer durable loan is advantageous as it is easily available at a low interest rate however most of the times it also involves hidden costs like processing fee, repayment fee, etc. And at some places, if you buy an item on consumer loan, you can’t avail the lucrative cash discounts and have to pay the actual price of the product.
Therefore, no matter how tempting these loans are, there are certain things that you must keep in mind when deciding to apply for a consumer durable loan:
1. Interest Rate
Interest rates on consumer durable loans are much less than the interest rates applicable to personal loans or credit card balances yet they differ from one financial institution to another and there are few institutions that also offer a 0% interest rate scheme on specific products.
While deciding which plan to opt for and whether to take a consumer durable loan at all or not, you must give the interest rate a serious thought as this will be the additional amount that you will be paying.
2. Duration
The duration or time period of the loan reflects the number of installments and the amount of each installment that will have to be paid by the borrower. The duration for repayment usually ranges between 3 months to 24 months and again differs for different institutions as well as the product you purchase. It’s better if you choose shorter time duration as it’ll lead to a less amount being given as interest, if interest is applicable. On the other hand, if there is 0% Interest rate scheme available then even a longer duration may not harm.
3. Down-Payment
Usually, the consumer durable loans help the borrower pay at least 80-90% of the product’s actual price and thus the down-payment comes down to be somewhere around 10-20% of the product’s price. Thus, it’s advisable that before you decide to go for a loan, determine how you will pay the down payment and make arrangements for the same.
4. Hidden Costs
Don’t believe the catalogue when it says that the loan has a 0% interest rate because despite a 0% interest rate there are many hidden costs like processing fees that is deducted from the loan amount along with certain clauses that you can also not avail any cash discount if you buy certain item on 0% Loan, ultimately you’ll be losing money in one way or the other. Therefore, ask for all these questions beforehand.
5. Documents
Consumer Durable loans can be easily and quickly availed partly because of the less number of documents required for obtaining it. You just need to submit a copy of your Identity Proof i.e. Driver’s License, Voter ID, Aadhaar Card, Address Proof i.e. Passport, Electricity bill, Telephone bill; and income proof i.e. Salary Slip or Form 16 or ITRs.
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